We are not only failing to educate our young people, but we are also teaching them to despise their country. But the left immediately attacked President Trump's solution to this problem, comparing his commission on patriotic education to the indoctrination of Hitler Youth organizations in Nazi Germany. Last week my friend John was chatting with [...]
Advocates of patriotic education would do well to embrace the nationalist elements of such an approach to learning. Doing so is fraught with challenges given the negative connotations of the word, but Yoram Hazony’s book, “The Virtue of Nationalism,” may be a useful resource for educators, policymakers, and historians. In response to historical revisionism and [...]
Piety and patriotism go together. In the profundity of our vocation, we've chosen as our national symbol an eagle, flying upwards and onwards to the source of all our rights and liberties, unto God! "The Glory of Being an American" originally aired on Bishop Sheen's popular television show, "Life Is Worth Living." Please enjoy this [...]
Patriotic education is less about the specific curricular concepts that are featured in American history classes, and more about a philosophical stance that informs our approach, one full of explicit values and assumptions. It involves an audacious faith in America and tells the whole story of our past, which includes the bad with the good. [...]
A nationalist, as defined by George Orwell, seeks to acquire more power and prestige for any “other unit,” apart from the nation, in which he has chosen to sink his identity. According to this definition of nationalism, almost every politician of whatever ideological ilk, is a “nationalist,” even those who despise their own nation. As [...]
Toxic patriotism is an enemy of authentic nationalism because it plays into the hands of globalist internationalism. It led to both World Wars and to the rise of the Nazis and, in consequence, to the reconfiguration of the post-war world in accordance with globalist principles. The mark of the toxic patriot is evident in the [...]
Patriotism is the wholesome, constructive love of one’s land and people. Nationalism is the unhealthy love of one’s government, accompanied by the aggressive desire to put down others—which becomes in deracinated modern men a substitute for religious faith. Patriotism is an appropriate, indeed necessary, sentiment for people who wish to preserve their freedom; nationalism is [...]
In order to truly serve their nation, true Americans must fearlessly criticize her for her waywardness. More importantly, we must evangelize her, bringing her to the fullness of faith in the God under Whom she owes her existence. Only when America kneels before her true God will she become truly civilized. One of the mistakes [...]
The civic-nationalist view holds that subscribing to the philosophy of the Founding—equality, opportunity, individualism—is the defining trait of the American people. But others argue that it is those uniquely American practices that order the rhythms of life that make us love the United States as our home… This past weekend, there was a wedding some [...]
The militant nationalism of the twentieth century made it futile to assert clear ideas, to ask honest questions, to make reasoned judgments, or to engage in truthful debate… Permit me to begin at the end. Joseph Pearce is concerned with the power of an international bureaucracy and the advent of a world government that will [...]
Samuel Johnson believed that just as pedants can abuse the objective meaning of words, distorting them for their own purposes, so can scoundrels abuse the healthy love of home and homeland, parroting patriotic words for self-serving reasons… Can it really be true, as Mark Malvasi has claimed in two separate essays on these pages, that [...]
Historical context, for members of the Straussian school, is “historicism,” a form of moral relativism that believes that there are no fixed truths, only ideas appropriate for their historical moment… Patriotism Is Not Enough: Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns, and the Arguments That Redefined American Conservatism by Steven Hayward (263 pages, Encounter Books, 2016) Dr. Steven Hayward [...]
Nationalism has not brought and will not bring unity, if for no other reason than nationalism insists on uniformity and must always exclude those who do not conform. Yet, if there is a chance to achieve some measure of unity, patriotism might enable it. In his thoughtful response to my essay, “History as Tragedy and [...]
The one thing every American shares is that we are immigrants, and this gives birth to our self-reliance, our willingness to risk tomorrow on faith, and our freedom from many of the cultural straitjackets found back in the Old Country. It’s all there in the art. All either necessary for immigration or fostered by it… [...]